


Guess how much I love you

by saythename



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, domestic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 03:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17634812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saythename/pseuds/saythename
Summary: Jeonghan, a recent college graduate and a new teacher at Pledis kindergarden, full of dreams and motivations encounters a quiet yet loving child, who always seems be the last one to be picked up among all his friendsHe made up his mind to speak up about the problem with Chan's father, but what should he do if that man truns out to a sinfully attractive police officer fluttering his heart?Kindergarden teacher x Police officer single dad AU





	1. He loves me...

Replacing Mrs.Lee for her maternity leave, Jeonghan was more excited than ever to start his new journey in Pledis kindergarten.

Arriving with a big smile drawn on his lips and excitement shimmering in his eyes, he was warmly welcomed by the director and introduced to his future colleagues who all seem really kindhearted and amiable. The director then assigned Sooyeon, a young woman slightly older than him whose classroom is right next to his as his guide helping him to get the hang of the things. She then leads him to what appear to be his place for the next upcoming years and called upon by the fifteen some children who rapidly grouped around them and stared at the new teacher with big curious eyes. Though a little worried and nervous about whether they'll like him, he amicably introduced himself with a wide grin before asking each kid individually their names.

To his relief, the children seem to genuinely like him as well and took a particular fascination for his long golden locks. Some brave ones even carefully asked whether they can touch it to which he light heartedly agreed as the children softly patted it or brushed their fingers through it with an awestruck expression engraved on their small faces.

Even though the kids seem to accept him warmly because of his caring behaviours and easy going nature of letting them call him hyung instead of Mr.Yoon, it still took him almost a week week to fully adapt comfortably to the new environment and is still in progress of learning the best ways to treat each student.

The morning usually began at 8AM with him greeting the children at the door and Seokmin would always be the first to arrive and shines the start of his day with his bright smile showcasing all his white teeth.  
Then came simple lessons which mostly consisted of learning different everyday words and numbers and in which Jun turns out to be especially smart and exceed among all. Then, they would have art, music or PE class around 10 depending on the day of the week. It was the period that he enjoyed the most in which he got a chance to learn more about some of the incredible hidden talents like Seungkwan and Seokmin's (loud) angelic singing voices and their extended knowledge of all the nursery songs (which some are even unfamiliar to Jeonghan himself) and Minghao's artistic and colourful drawing skills.  
Yet it also soon became his biggest headache since it can become quite chaotic with a class of fifteen kids that never seem to be low on energy. Even though all of the kids are kind by nature, the discipline can be hard to keep at times, from keeping on eye on Minhyuk trying to convince Pinky to eat play doe with him during art to chasing after children running a little bit too fast and dangerously close to the front gate in PE. Fortunately, lunch at noon always saved Jeonghan from his dried out throat.

After the school meal, Jeonghan would let the kids chose a book together and everyone would sit in a circle. One of the kids would have the chance to sit on his lap (he had to set a rotating schedule due to high demand and the fact he only has two legs with the rule of no hair touching) then proceed to read them out loud with his clear and soothing voice.

A short nap follows the story time involving lots of persuasion since it can be difficult sometimes to convince such a hyperactive class to choose boring sleep over toys and games, except Hyungwon who will usually be the first to lay down and close his eyes without him even asking.

Once all the children asleep, Jeonghan are left with some free time do some quick cleaning (especially necessary after any kind of activities involving paint or DIY) inside the now messy classroom. It was the only complete silent moment of the day when Jeonghan can finally hear himself thinking and a well deserved break for his sore feet from running behind those tiny legs.

Though he hates to wake up those peacefully and adorable sleeping faces, at 3PM he had to and there are usually some rather grumpy sleepers (mostly Vernon). And once everyone is up, cheese sticks or veggies with juice are usually served as a small afternoon snack. The kids are then free to play in the playground in the courtyard or in the classrooms until their parents came to whom the new teacher bid goodbye one by one feeling complete and satisfied of another great day.

Little by little he learnt more of each children's virtues and flaws, likes and dislikes and he grew even fonder of them. There were some kids that he could easily pinpoint their characters since day one like the way too sassy for his age's Seungkwan who never seems to run out of things to say with his partner in crime, an as loud Seokmin. There was also the clingy Pinky who asked to be hold all the time and likes to follow behind Nayoung with the most sweet personality he has ever met (among kids and adults), Jun and Minghao, the adorable pair of Chinese twins with polar opposite personalities, and the playful duo of Jooheon and Minhyuk who have the most creative mind when it comes to pranks. It can be little tiresome at times taking care of a group of five year olds, but at the end of the day, Jeonghan still adored his job and the children of his class whom he won't change for all the gold of the world.

Among all the lively and sometimes too energetic children was one in particular that caught his attention. Jeonghan won't exactly put him as an outsider since the other never really bothered or picked on him and all treat him very nicely, yet compared to the rest of the kids, that little one seemed awfully quiet and shy among such a blaring class making the young teacher keep an extra eye on him and trying to think every night of new ways of open him up more. His shy nature wasn't the only thing that made him worried. Indeed, Jeonghan also noticed that Chan was always the last one to be picked up, not only among his classmates, but of the whole kindergarten. When his parent finally did come, it was always a short male with bright pink hair that could be passed for a teenager who Chan called uncle Jihoon. It is not that Jeonghan didn't try to ask the uncle the reason behind the late arrival, yet the latter's intimidating looks always made him swallow his words back (don't judge him, Jeonghan might be much taller, but that man really is scary). Instead, he has learnt from the staff that Chan is living with his single father who is often busy at work to pick his son up himself.

With the sense of responsibility and motivation of his freshly new teaching position, he tried to call the father in question several times to only receive answers more or less similar to the fact that "Mr.Choi isn't available to talk to him (that him was disagreeably emphasized) at the moment." and that "if there is no emergency, they'll have to hang up."

Frustration grew in Jeonghan gradually realizing how little Chan's parent seem to care about him, yet there was little he could do to change it, angering him even more.  
"I can't believe he won't even bother to listen to me!" Standing in the middle of the courtyard, supervising the kids playing around at the end of the day, Jeonghan whined to Wonwoo, another rare specie of male teachers in the kindergarten. The latter was slightly younger than him but quite tall and slim. He can look a little distant at first with his heavily lined eyes and the deepness of his voice when he didn't smile, but soon Jeonghan realized his true goofy and friendly self and they grew much closer.

 

The blond male continued without waiting for his colleague's response:  
"How rude of him to hang up on people if there is no emergency!"

 

Wonwoo wished nothing more than to finish that on going conversation they were having for the past two weeks, sighed before repeating for the endless time of the day: "You never really talked to him directly so technically it is not his fault, and that Mr.Choi that you have been complaining about for the past two hours works as the head chief of the Seoul central police and investigation department, it is quite obvious from the title that he is probably busier than most." 

 

Yet the blonde pouted at those words and argued back:  
"It doesn't change the fact that he should take his role of father more seriously!"

 

The taller male opened his hands in defeating manners and exclaimed:  
"You don't live with them how do you know he is not a caring father at home!"  
"You can just sense it from his attitude towards Chan's education!"  
Wonwoo crooked an eyebrow at his response and then concluded with at smirk:  
"Ok mom, go sue him for child negligence and then adopt that poor kid and call him your son."  
The shorter male rolled his eyes and sarcastically laughed: "Haha, funny"  
Wonwoo's lips curled into a faint smile and replied:  
"I know I am"  
"I swear to God if I ever get a chance to see that Mr. Choi I am going to tell him face to face two words of my thought on his attitude! How could such lovely Chan deserve such a careless father!"  
Yet Wonwoo's gaze seem to be drew upon at something behind him and laughed nervously while making small x signs with his hands  
signalling him to.... stop?  
Before Jeonghan could fully process the reason behind his colleague's strange behaviour, an awkward cough resonated behind him.  
Turning back to the sound, the young male saw a tall and lean man with well toned body who looked sinfully good in that uniform of his. He was staring at the prettiest eyes with the longest eyelashes he has ever seen added a touch of cuteness to his overall mainly and handsome features and his straight nose and sharp jawline made Jeonghan absent-mindedly bite his lower lips.

Sooyeon approached them and greeted the newcomer joyfully:  
"Oh! Mr.Choi, it is nice to see you again!" before yelling towards a small group of children playing in the sandbox: "Chan your dad is here!"

 

It is funny how expectation is different from reality, in his scenario, he should be scolding and demanding an apology for his rude behaviour from the that stranger that he hasn't met but has already disliked. Yet there he was, in the middle of running and screaming children, mouth slightly parted, dumbfounded, unable to even formulate a single word on the tip of his tongue. The speech he has mentally prepared by himself days prior seem to have sublimated out of his mind. They stood there in silence with the younger staring down at his shoes, too overwhelmed to look up.

 

A loud "Daddy!" broke through the air, and Chan, most excited Jeonghan has even seen, jumped into the man's arms as the man lovingly hugged back. The pair of father and son quickly waved goodbye before crossing the gate with the blonde male's gaze still fixated on them as he felt a consolingly pat on his shoulder from his colleague in the back.

Meeting that "irresponsible", "rude" and "insensitive" Mr.Choi was not going the way he imagined, and most of all, the man he hold a small grudge against was definitely not as hot as Jeonghan ever excepted. 

\----------------------------------------------------

"I was such a fool!" Jeonghan still cringed to the memory of that scene.  
"Calm yourself, he probably didn't even hear you." Replied the voice on the other end trying hard to hide his laugh from the story he just heard.  
"He was not even 5ft away from me! How could he not hear what I said?" The blonde male groaned in embarrassment.  
"Why are you so flustered over such a small thing anyway?" Minhyun chuckled teasingly on the other side: "Was he that handsome?"  
"No!" growled Jeonghan back, yet the blush on his face said otherwise.  
"If you are that concerned just apologize to him next time" Minhyun concluded wisely and then added "if there is a next time since he seems so busy."

"By the way, me and Jr and the other seniors you are familiar with are planning to grab a drink or something tomorrow night, wanna join us?"

"As much as I'd love to, I can't... I just applied to be part time babysitter and it will be my first day tomorrow." Jeonghan let out a small sigh.

"Dude, I felt like crying of tiredness for taking care of my own son for a day and you want to babysit in your free time as well on top of your work? Aren't you tired of those tiny little monsters sometimes?"

"Hyung, they are called children." Jeonghan let out a small laugh through the speaker "And they are not that bad."

"Whatever makes you sleep at night." The blonde male chuckled at those words knowing the latter was probably rolling this eyes.

"Plus I have to pay the bills somehow, and that job offered a pretty impressive pay."

"You won't have to if you chose to become a pediatrician instead of-" The latter soon cut his words short once he realized what just came out of his mouth and there was a short moment of silence lingering among them.

"Jeonghan I am sorry." Minhyun started slowly.

"It's fine." Jeonghan reassured him softly "Just don't mention it again."

Then he added playfully with a teasing curl on his lips: "Or I won't come to watch after your baby next time you try to sneak out when Minki leave for a business trip." Making the latter whine in response.

They chattered about news of family members and other random stuff, before the younger had to leave as Minhyun wished him a good luck for the next day.

Once the phone hung up, Jeonghan let out a small sigh before let his slim body sink into the large sofa, lost in his thoughts.

Hopefully what Minhyun said was true, that he'll never have to meet that Mr.Choi ever again.


	2. A little

To the sound of boiling coffee pouring into a thermos and keys shuffling, everything seems to have started like any other morning.

After double checking the stove and carefully close all the lights, Jeonghan directed his feet towards the door with a heavy heart.

Not that he didn't like the job itself, in fact, like Minhyun hyung said, he never seems to get tired of children anyway.

The source of discomfort lays that small piece of paper brushing against his skin inside his jeans pocket with an address messily scrambled situated in

Gangnam.

The area of Seoul regrouping most elites and the wealthiest of the country. A place envied by all, yet despite by him.

Jeonghan didn't hate rich people, in fact he came from a quite wealthy background when he was younger, yet having dealt and seen enough kids to conclude the amount of capital in a family is often exponential proportional to how spoiled their child might be.

If it was any other employer that asked him to work in that region, Jeonghan would have ran away from it like pest no matter how many bills it will help to pay, but the request was called from one of his close college senior that ask him making it impossible to refuse.

He hopped into the early morning bus and took a place on the empty seat next to the window before glancing at the changing landscape. The growingly familiar view full of estates of wild and luxurious architecture with the most exotic gardens and immense pools uncontrollably guided his thoughts back those days where the most elaborate parties were hold with the finest food and the diamonds and precious stones decorating elegantly on silk dresses. The crystal chandeliers hanging on the tall ceiling was illuminating the rooms so brightly, one could almost have mistaken it as the sun and it was all so perfect it almost seemed if the scene could last endlessly...

But it is now all only a distant past which he refused to look back, after he has pushed everyone away except a few.

Jeonghan shook his head and tried to clear his mind, he should focus on the task in hand instead of drowning in nostalgia.

After a fifteen minutes' ride, he finally arrived.

Jeonghan almost wanted to retract his feet back to the already moving vehicle at the sight of even more extravagant structures and mentally scoffed at those mansions that meant nothing more than useless fanfare to him now and headed directly to his destination without second glance.  
It didn't take him long to find the two story house in question. It was more on the simple and clean side than the ones around it, yet warmer and more welcoming with its stone wall, many large windows permitting natural light to permeate through and a low-pitched roof shielding its owners.

The place looked far more lively, like one that is meant to be built for a family, unlike those simple display wealth and power surrounding it.

 

The corners of his lips can't help but raise at the sight of such lovely house and his heart finally lightened up a little. Jeonghan took a finale deep breath before ringing the bell.   
Running footsteps could be heard and soon the door opened as a little head peeked up from it and revealed a child who is not estrange to him at all.   
"Oh! Jeonghan hyung!" Chan happily exclaimed towards the the newcomer, before asking with curious big eyes "Why are you here?"

The fear he had all matinee about the kid he will be nursing being spoiled has dissipated in a blink of eye. He let out a sigh of relief and cheerful greet him back, clearly happy that he could even use this occasion to get closer to that shy boy and open him up more to the other kids! It was the best of both worlds! Until it took him a second for his excitement to fade away and realize that if Chan is here, it also means...  
"Chan, who is at the door?"  
That husky and low voice that has been haunting him for the whole week resonated from inside made his blood run cold.  
Fight or flee instinct hits leading him to internally debate whether it would be alright to leave Chan there and just run away.

Yet before a conclusion could have been made, a painfully familiar raven hair has emerged from the doorframe. The taller was raising his hand to his mouth, yawning lazily with his torso bare naked. Jeonghan blushed and shifted his gaze away down to his own feet (He is not going to admit that he did took a second glance at those abs).

The elder seemed as surprised at his sudden appearance, eyebrows slightly frowned in confusion before carefully asking "Oh! you are Chan's teacher right?" to which Jeonghan nodded, yet said nothing face still flustered pink.

It took him another second to remember the possible reason of the younger sudden appearance. "Are you the babysitter by any chance too?"   
The blonde male nodded more eagerly this time and mumbled a small "Yes"

Chan was growing impatient of all their long and awkward exchange and started nudging his father's leg and opened his arms demanding to be hold, Seungcheol wrap his son up into his arms and invited sheepishly their guest in. 

Like the outside, the living room was decorated with modern future and a few contemporary art pieces yet there was a slight detail making the new babysitter internal cringe.

It was hard to see that cloths were pilled high on the sofa with several toys spilled all over the hardwood floors beneath it. A few unwashed empty mugs and glasses scattered around on the coffee table Jeonghan didn't even have to tiptoe to see the trail of dish starting from the marble count into stack of dishes into the sink from the open kitchen.

He had to dig his nails into his palm to stop his envy of roll up his sleeves and start cleaning all this mess up.

 

"I am sorry the house is in such a state" Seungcheol weakly apologized and scratched his head seeing the babysitter's eyes travelling around: "The housekeeper was supposed to come yesterday, but she got sick and the person filling in for her can only come today in the afternoon, so hopefully you are not too bothered by it for a few hours." Jeonghan let out a quiet sigh to himself. Even though he is known to be a quite lazy person, his germaphobia always had the magic to beat his laziness, so he would definitely have cleaned the whole thing up before the housekeeper even comes.

Not that he would mind anyway since his pay was far more generous enough for him to include a little extra in it.

Jeonghan mumbled a quick "it's ok" and cleared his throat trying to avoid his eyes from landing own the clearly still shirtless torso of the latter.  
The young father seem to have finally wake up enough to realize the blonde male's sudden pink cheeks and unsettling gaze to finally excuse himself to put a shirt on and suggest their guest to make himself comfortable in the meanwhile.

When he came back with some shirt covering his body, Jeonghan has already carefully sat at the part of the corner of the sofa he managed to clean up with the back of his hand and was attentively listening to Chan showing him his new toy. Seungcheol cleared his throat and chuckled: "Well since you guys already know each other so I guess there is no need for presentations."

The blonde male bitted his lips nervously, unsure of whether it was the right moment to apologize for the careless insults he threw out last week, after twisting his tongue a few times, he slowly started "Mr.Choi..."

"Please call me Seungcheol instead." The latter cut him off with warm laughter that Jeonghan swore how could even a simple sound like this be so perfect "No need to be so formal, plus Chan talked a lot about you." 

As Jeonghan tried to find his words once again, the elder's eyes scanned the kitchen clock after those words and cursed under his breath: "Shit, I am late, I have to go" before rushing around, trying to find his keys and wallet among random objects and piles of clothes spread around the house and shouted as his hands gathered all the necessities "the phone number in case of emergency should be on the coffee table. Make yourself at home and feel free to use everything in the kitchen if you guys are hungry."   
After quickly pressing a kiss on Chan's chubby cheeks and wished them a good day, the door was slammed shut once again.

It all happened so fast that the new babysitter was left dumbfounded before he could have even open his mouth.  
Next to him, Chan was staring back at him with big curious eyes anticipating what is happening next, so he could only take a deep breath.

If fate was to turn out like that, might as well make the most out of it.

He bend down ruffling softly on the child's light brown hair and asked:  
"Can you show me around the house Channie?"

Since then, multiple times he has passed by to keep the child company, and little by little, Jeonghan learnt a little more about Seungcheol, both from himself and Chan. He now knows that Seungcheol was the lead chief of Seoul's central police station (which explains the house and the location). He also knows that the elder never cooked (whether he couldn't or simply didn't have time was yet to be find out) and most important of all, from the loving gaze he always has for his son made it clear, the latter wasn't entirely the irresponsible and careless parent he first assumed to be. With time, his heart grew softer and understood a little better the reason of seemingly negligence towards Chan was simply the duty of his work and the lack of another pair of hands to help him out. Were they friends? Probably. But that word left a bitter sweet taste in his mouth.

He didn't have enough courage to ask about Chan's mother, but at least Seungcheol seemed to be single for the moment (not it matters to him in anyway, dare he emphasize). 

Everything was going smoothly for the past weeks in the kindergarden as well, Chan was always picked up on time by that pink haired uncle that he now knew was named Jihoon and even by Seungcheol a few times which during those moments Wonwoo would always flash him a uncomfortable smirk that he wanted to punch.

At what seemed like another Wednesday afternoon, after all of the children has been gone, Chan was left once again alone and it has been quite some time since the closing. Seeing his mood growing a little gloomy, Jeonghan tried to cheer him he up with small talks, but it didn't quite work out as he hoped would. So instead, he quietly took a place next to him side by side, both resting their chin on their hand, gazing at the pretty clouds tainted with the orange, pink and red of the setting sky, sitting on the first step of the stairs, waiting for his father to arrive.  
Jeonghan looked down at his watch.  
It was almost 7pm, a hour has passed since the closing time and he still has to go back home to prepare for tomorrow's work and feed Mr.Putter who can get grumpy when not served on time.

He tried to call Seungcheol multiple times already, both at the office and on the cellphone number he left when he came to babysit, but it redirected towards a voicemail each time. Jeonghan regretted not asking the phone number of that uncle Jihoon, yet who was he lying to? Even in a thousand years, he will still be too intimated to even crack open his mouth under that ever so present menacing glare.

The new teacher let out a small sigh of defeat and turned towards the small child whose lips were now dangerously trembling and beads of tears starting to form on the corner of his eyes.  
After reassuring Chan for the tenth time that 'daddy was probably on its way' even Jeonghan wasn't so convinced about what he promised anymore.   
He stood up and quick wipe a few tears Chan was trying to bite back and asked softly:   
"Daddy forgot me?"   
"No, of course not sweetie" Jeonghan replied immediately soothingly brush of a strand of hair of his forehead and reasoned "Something might have happened that he really couldn't come on time."   
And then quickly made up his mind and changed the subject:

"Well, looks like daddy is running late, so do you want to go home with me first and then daddy will come pick you up? I have some really yummy tomato sauce that came from Italy from my sister! Your daddy told me you like pasta, so we can make some meat sauce spaghetti?"

Jeonghan mentally patted himself on the back seeing Chan's expression slowly changing from sadness to curiosity and seem to have forget for a second why he was crying and excitedly raised his hands up in the air:

"Together! I want to help too!"  
"Of course you can" chuckled Jeonghan while he helped Chan getting back on his feet. "You'll be my designated little sous-chef to wash the tomatoes! And you can even meet Mr. Putter!"   
To which the kid responded even more hyped than before: "Yeh! Mr.Butter! But who is Mr.Butter?"   
"It is Putter, Mr.Putter, love" Jeonghan muffled a laughter trying not to think what would have happened if he did name him Mr.Butter and decided to keep the surprise a little longer "you'll have to see for yourself, but I can give you a hint! He's white and fluffy, with pink paws, but don't be afraid, he has no claws and loves children!"

"I want to meet him!" Chan joyfully yelped and clapped his hands together happily.  
"Alright then, to Jeonghan hyung and Mr.Putter's home we go! But let's go get your bag and coat first ok?" before wrapping his fingers Chan's outreached palm and lead him back inside.

They appeared back to the front door a few minutes later with Chan soon buckled into Jeonghan's the car, all set to go, but that is not before leaving both a voicemail and a small note on the door when hot police officer dad or bubblegum-colored hair uncle would show up.

 

As expected, Chan's eyes immediately glinted in fascination at the big ball of fluff meowing, greeting them (or more like demanding food) once they crossed the doorway.

Chan glanced back at his teacher with pleading doe eyes, and once received a smile as permission, ran towards the slowly moving white ball before burying his face into the soft fur.

The grumpy Mr.Putter who usually wasn't fond of strangers, seemingly didn't bother too much. He laid on his stomach and let the child's tiny fingers brushed over his white, almost silver fur, even purring from time to time.

After dinner and cartoon, Jeonghan's phone finally vibrated with a message of the parent in question. After a quick reading and response, the young man explained to the child that his father will be here as soon as he can. In the meanwhile of waiting, Jeonghan leaded Chan into a small library, with a large wooden bookshelf filled with of the multicolor of the rainbow making Chan's jaw drop in amazement letting out a small exclamation of "Wow!"

Jeonghan grinned and let the child seat down on the cashmere coated floor.  
"You can take any book you want and if it is too high, tell me and I'll get it for you" as the blonde male to finally opened his laptop get some work done for the next day's class.  
The sound of gently giggles from time to time had the magic to put a soft smile unto his face and before he knew, he has finished all of his work and laid on stomach next to Chan who has raised his eyes before asking:

"What's Jeonghan hyung's favorite book?"   
"Mine? Hum... I have a lot" Jeonghan lowered his head and hummed in thought before answering "but my favorite all is one called 'Guess who much I love you', have you heard of that one Channie?"   
and after seeing the younger shaking a negative to that question, Jeonghan suggested:  
"Let's get you ready for bed and I'll read it to you alright?"

When the clock ringed nine, and Chan fast asleep, Jeonghan has opened the door to a very apologetic Seungcheol that looked in a very messy state.

"I am so sorry! We just received a notice this afternoon about the largest gang of drug dealers in Seoul and it was our best chance to catch them and I left a voicemail for Jihoon but I forgot he left for Singapore yesterday. Again, I am really sorry!"   
Jeonghan quickly shook his head as sign it is fine and asked, eyes full of worry:

"You are not hurt I hope?"

"Oh, no, everything is fine." Seungcheol quickly reassured scratching the back of his head, unsure what to say next.   
"Have you had supper yet?" Jeonghan questioned again and invited the latter into the living room.  
"Yes, yes" mumbled Seungcheol shyly, yet the growl of his stomach exposed his little white lie.   
Jeonghan grinned at the latter's cheeks flushing red and pulled out a kitchen chair out gesturing the elder to take a seat before disappearing into the kitchen.

Soon, a pleasant smell flow out of it making Seungcheol's mouth salivate as Jeonghan came back placing a plate of spaghetti pilled into a small mountain in front of him.  
Seungcheol was too starving to care for more formalities and quickly smiled grateful before mumbling a "I'll eat well" and swallow a mouth full of pasta.

The first plate was inhaled in less than 5 minutes and Seungcheol sheepishly grinned when Jeonghan asked him if he'd go for seconds.  
The second portion went down much slower and Jeonghan took the time to ask:  
"Does it taste alright? I am sorry it's the leftovers of the dinner, that's the quickest thing I could make."  
Seungcheol shook his head and sincerely admitted:   
"That's the best spaghetti I ever had in my life."  
The raven haired male jumped a little when his leg was brushed by a foreign sensation, only to find Mr.Putter, behaving unusually friendlily, walking up to him meowing at the newcomer.

"Oh" Seungcheol's exclaimed in surprise before bending down to pat the furred creature on the head "That's a really pretty cat you have here" and Jeonghan has to use all his mental strength to not to swallow at those glorious biceps right under his eyes.

"H-His name is Mr.Putter, from Mr.Putter and Tabby, it's a quite famous children's story collection I used to read when I was young" He wanted to slap himself as soon as those words left his mouth, did he ask for his name and your childhood backstory? No! So get a hold of yourself Yoon Jeonghan!

Fortunately, Seungcheol brushed it off and praised:

"That's such a nice name!"

When the plate was cleaned again, the elder raised from his place and quickly carried his sleeping child out in his arms: "We should probably get going, we have bothered you more than enough today."

"Not at all" Jeonghan smiled back "Chan has been an absolute angel."

"I'll add today to the hours of babysitting of this month and I'll pay you triple for all the trouble it caused."

"Oh please don't" Jeonghan waved his hands and shook his head "I'll feel terrible to accept it, it is just my duty to make sure my students are safe."

"Please let me at least buy you a meal then. I am sure Chan would love it too." That puppy eyes and pleading look made Jeonghan blankly nod in agreement.

"Thank you" Seungcheol shortened the distance between their faces, afraid to wake up Chan and lowered his voice thick with Daegu accent, eyes gazing sweetly at him "and goodnight Jeonghan."

Jeonghan thinks he might need a cold shower to calm down his fluttering heart at how freaking attractive that goodnight was, he is probably not going to sleep tonight.

\------------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks later,

Seungcheol feels he could finally breath normally again. After that tension full night dealing with the largest group of drug trafficants, the case could finally be closed and most of the paper works are done as well. Now all he has to worry was that red circle on the calendar indicating the current date.

"So, it is today huh?" smirked Baekho passing next to him and patting him on the shoulder.

Seungcheol groaned in response and glared at his other colleagues that were all staring at him with suggestive grins plastered on their lips.

It all goes back to a week ago,

"What kind of psycho would attack children?" Baekho, his left-man signed at the new crime they received and added towards Seungcheol "Better keep an eye on Chan as well, speaking of that cute kid, how come you don't rush at every end of day to fetch him anymore?"   
Chankyun crook an eyebrow suggestively and smirked "Our boss found a babysitter."

"Is he safe?" questioned Nana, pouring herself another cup of coffee.

The raven haired man shrugged and explained:  
"He was suggested be an old friend of mine and I got Raina to do his background check already, twice."

Suddenly remembering something, Seungcheol cleared his throat and announced with a serious expression: "Also, speaking of that, there is a serious matter we need to discuss right now."

After gathering all the members of his team in the meeting room and pulling down the curtains, Seungcheol started with a deep voice:

"Do you guys have any good restaurant suggestion for dinner?"

The whole room was confused for a second and Nana broke the silence first:

"Why? Is there a suspect the police are spying on that we need to set up in a restaurant?"

"No" Seungcheol corrected, cheeks slightly pink this time "just need a good restaurant to show gratitude to someone..."

"You can't be serious!" Chankyun rolled his eyes "You called all us in here just to help you get laid?"

"It's not a date!" retorted Seungcheol. "He's just the babysitter that helped me and Chan a lot."

"Who's that babysitter anyway?" whined Jooyeon "only if Raina was here so we could know how good that Romeo is for our boss to call into his romantic hotline during work hours."

"Is he the long haired teacher we saw when you went to fetch Chan?" suddenly asked Chankyun.

"Oh my" Nana scolded closer, voice pitched high and quickly rushing the other to answer "Who? When? What? You have one minute to summarize everything you know! But first of all, is he good looking?"

"Yep" smirked Chankyun towards Seungcheol's direction "Quite a catch must I say."

"Don't worry boss! We'll make you the most perfect dinner ever!" yelled out Jooyeon after hearing Chankyun's story and all of his subordinates nodded in unison.

Seungcheol wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose at that sight, why on earth did he think that would be a good idea.

"Boss, there is another victim that just called in" Raina walked in the room and started reading from her binder to the whole office "This time is a young boy from Sunflower kindergarten, age 5, same cause of death as the previous ones."

Seungcheol frowned, criminals like those are the ones that get him most, being a father himself, people that will have the heart to even raise a finger on children should not exist in this world.

"It is the third one already." Nana groaned, a serious expression back on her face.

"Go" Baekho gestured towards Seungcheol and grabbed the binder "We'll work on it. You, just focus on your little rendez-vous."

Raina faked a scandalized voice and covered her mouth: "Our boss is actually going on a date? I thought he even made up the excuse for being gay just to cover the fact he was asexual."

Seungcheol slapped the back of her head and quickly rushed out of the room before anymore non sense.

Nevertheless, Nana's voice managed to infiltrate into the elevator:

"Good luck with your date!"

"It's not a date!" yelled back Seungcheol right before the elevator's door closes.

They were a little early when they arrived but Chan didn't seem to mind since he was busy telling his father everything they did in school today.

Seungcheol was asking him about their homeworks, when the door opened again and soon followed by:

"Jeonghan hyung!" yelled Chan excitedly running towards the blonde male who waved towards them.

A simple white button up and a pair of skinny black jeans had the magic to look incredible on him. His blonde hair usually pulled into a ponytail was let down and brushing his shoulder framing his face perfectly. Jeonghan seemed to have notice his lingering glance as well which made Seungcheol cough to hide his previous action and inviting the younger to take a seat before offering him the menu.

The dinner went smoothly (Seungcheol has to praise Nana for choosing a restaurant that wasn't too fancy to be bragging, nor too cheap to be disrespectful). It was perfectly warm like home.

At first Seungcheol was afraid they might be some uneasy silence since their age differences, but Jeonghan's maturity and Chan's constant chatting opened both of them up a lot more.

An old lady sitting in the next table observed the scene and whispered to Seungcheol as they were waiting for their dessert: "That's a really lovely family you have here, cherish them well."

The raven haired man thanked the lady awkwardly before turning his gaze back to the two people in front of him.

At the image of Chan and Jeonghan chuckling and whispering happily together looking down at something on Jeonghan's phone, forming a family might not be a bad idea he thought.

Seungcheol shook his head to clear his mind, what was he thinking? Jeonghan was probably just being nice because of his kind personality, and who knows? He might even be seeing someone already. 

A sour taste raises in his mouth at the thought that the stunning one in front of him might be taken by another person.

As the night approaches its end, Seungcheol has driven Jeonghan back his house to the excuse that he'll put Chan to sleep first and then drive him home and then explained that car mysteriously won't start for some reason, inviting him to stay over in the guest room. Deep in denial, there is no reason Seungcheol want to admit that is making him lie, he just didn't want him to leave.

When Jeonghan came out of the shower wearing Seungcheol's shirt he has borrowed, the latter was laying on the coach and watching some TV shows. The younger slowly approached and noticed the latter was constantly twisting his neck right and left.

"Does your neck hurt?" Jeonghan bluntly asked out of sudden.

"Don't worry about it" Seungcheol brushed it off "It is just a little sour because of the paper works."

"Do you want a massage?" the younger carefully asked "I have had trainings in it"

Not wanting to make the latter awkward, Seungcheol reluctantly accepted and laid on his stomach on the large sofa, yet slowly, he felt his tensed body relaxing down at the warmth travelling through the latter's palm. It was so soothing that he could feel his eyelids closing little by little.   
Seungcheol can't help but praise: "That is really incredible, you could make a living of that! Did you do that as work before?"   
Jeonghan shook his head lightly and replied: "I wanted to be a doctor when I was younger."   
"Why didn't you then?" before quickly covering his mouth for being so insensitive.   
"It is fine, some uncontrollable things happened and I had to adapt to them. But it is all in the past now."   
Seungcheol decided it was best to stop the questions seeing Jeonghan's saddened expression and tried to changed the subject:

"Well, with that inconsiderate question, you can ask whatever you want about me as well."

Jeonghan chuckled and thought for a few seconds before asking shyly:

"Where is Chan's mother?"

Seungcheol sighed and said:

"Believe it or not, I am not his biological father." Making the younger's hands stop at that shocking revelation, yet he continued:

"He is my sister's child, but she passed away during the labour and we never knew who the father was. I couldn't see him growing up without any parent so I decided to adopt him and treat him as my own kid."

"You are really nice man to do that." Jeonghan offered him a sincere smile, a smile a little to blinding that made Seungcheol shifted his body to lay on his back and before Jeonghan can grasped the situation, he was laying on top of the latter faces inches away. Jeonghan could feel his heart beating out of his chest and tried to move his numbed limbs, but before he could, something landed on his lips, and pulled him down deeper.

It was even better than he imagined it, but when Jeonghan finally grasped the reality and pushed the latter away before shouting:

"I should go to sleep, goodnight!"


	3. Not at all

"You have been cleaning that spot for a good ten minutes now."

Those words snapped Jeonghan out of his daydream as his eyes absent-mindedly shifted down landing on the blue wipe he was holding unto. When his sense finally came back to realize they were at the end of the day in the middle tidying the classrooms, the long haired male quickly turned around, trying to hide his cheeks blushing into a light shade of pink, yet it didn't escape Wonwoo's judging gaze who let out a low chuckle before asking:

"Alright, come on, what happened to our Jeonghannie during the weekend?" Clearly hinting at the dinner that Jeonghan now regretted having carelessly mentioned to his friend.

The blonde male bitted his lower lips a few times, a habit he inconsciently does whenever he tries to find his words, and slowly started after a few minutes:

"Well... you already know that Chan and his dad invited me to dinner" the latter nodded in replied with an anticipating stare that pressed him skip to the part he hasn't heard already "The food was great, it was the best I have been to that was both reasonably priced yet insanely delicious, they even had bruschetta on their menu"

Sensing his friend's growing impatient feet taping, Jeonghan knew he couldn't stretch his story any longer: "and it was getting quite late when we came out, so Seungcheol, Chan's dad, of course you know him, he invited me over to stay at their guestroom for the night..."

He was now mumbling increasingly faster, yet voice diminishing at each syllable: "And I saw him neck and asked him whether he'd like a massage, and we were just chatting, but before I even knew what happened, he leaned in and..."

Jeonghan gulped before continuing with a tone as low as a whisper:

"kissed me..." and buried his face into his hands.

A sharp exhaled gasp could be heard which is followed eagerly by:

"What did you do after that?"

"What do you think I would have done? I pushed him off and ran back to the guestroom..." groaned Jeonghan, still embarrassed by the scene happened days before and weakly defended himself once he saw his colleague's judging glare:

"It was so sudden; I was scared ok?"

"That sounded like a freaking eight-o-clock drama that my mom would watch." snorted Wonwoo picking up the broom he left behind, and continued on after a few moments of silence:

"So what did he say after that?"

The question made Jeonghan's memory wandered back to the morning after the chaos,

He didn't manage to find much sleep that night and in the following morning, still digesting the shocking revelation about Chan's birth adding to that unexpected intimate moment, his head felt too heavy to process anything. Jeonghan walked around his room for quite a while, anxious to face the man that has been on his mind all night and ended staying inside his room way longer than it's probably appropriate.

When the short knock on his door followed by Chan peaking in with a wide grin, Jeonghan could only reciprocate the smile as best as he could and wrapped his fingers around the outreached small palm.

As he follows Chan down the stairs, a pleasant sweet smell has already filled the first floor.

Seungcheol greeted him good morning before announcing breakfast will be there soon and offering both of them to take a seat.

Jeonghan ended awkwardly sitting in front of Chan on their high kitchen stall in front of a high pilled plate of pancakes and soon after, Seungcheol joined them and everyone was eating quietly, to the exception of the father occasionally correcting his son's manner of holding a fork, without a word directed to him, or without any mention of the kiss.

A small part of Jeonghan tried to brush for the latter's behavior by the thought that the conversion about last night shouldn't probably be done in front of a toddler.

After helping with the dishes and buckled inside the elder's car on his way back to his apartment,

the raven male still doesn't seem wiling to open his mouth anytime soon.

When reaching his limit of the turmoil and confusion eating him alive inside, his blonde male gathered all his courage and started when another voice echoed at the same time:

"About last night..."

Seungcheol's hand signaled the latter to speak before him, yet Jeonghan insisted that the older to go ahead first.

Yet, the long haired male would soon regret, sensing his whole body frozen unto place as if someone has poured a bucket of ice water from the top of his head at the following declaration:

"I'm sorry about what I have done, I was a little drunk and wasn't in my right mind, let's not talk about it again."

Jeonghan let out a heavy sigh at the thought of the flashback to which Wonwoo took the hint of not asking any further and shyly patted his in the back trying his back to comfort the blond male.

The latter chuckled at his friend's awkwardness and added mischievously:

"Enough about me, so how are things going with that high school teacher next door that follows you around? What was his name already? Minu? Mingu?"

"Mingyu" corrected Wonwoo before rolling his eyes and hissed "And what about him? I have told you already, he's a stalker and a psychopath that's convinced that since we went to the same high school and both have brown eyes, we are meant to be soulmates."

"Awnnn" Jeonghan squealed "our Wonwoo is blushing." That earned him a wipe thrown at his face.

Jeonghan hasn't seen the raven haired man for quite a while after that, Seungcheol hasn't contacted him for babysitting, and Jihoon was almost always the one that came to pick up Chan at the end of the day. And even when the raven male did come, his gaze would shift away as soon as their eyes locked to which Jeonghan forced to hide a frown from the obvious avoiding.

But he didn't have to time contemplate about this whole mess and cry out his wounded feelings, another headache soon came after.

It all started with a late night phone call with his younger sister in London.

"Oppa it is raining everyday here" whined Jeonghwa. "The sky is always grey."

Jeonghan chuckled, picturing her pout he was accustomed to before before retorting:

"Would you prefer come back to mom and dad then?"

She groaned loudly in response at his teasing and changed the subject:

"By the way, have Lizzy eonnie told you yet?"

"Tell me what?" Jeonghan asked carelessly chewing on a piece of bread, and choked on it once he heard the next part of the sentence.   
"That she is moving back to Korea and signed up Soonyoung to your kindergarten."

So there he was, trying to silence the constantly talking class of toddlers, with another child on his heels curiously looking at the group of kids in front of his eyes.

When the quietness finally reigned back,

Jeonghan cleared his throat pushing the unfamiliar child to the front and announced:

"Class, we are having a new friend today and-"

a high pitched voice cut in before he could finish:

"Hello! My name is Soonyoung!" the was grinning widely, eyes sparkling in excitement before proudly raising his head and added hugging onto the adult's leg "And Jeonghan is my uncle"

The young teacher face palmed internally, Soonyoung has really taken after his mother, eager to open his mouth whenever he can. How silly of him to worry he might have been nervous to meet his new classmates?

Jeonghan soon continued after his inner grumble and mumbled lowly to his nephew:

"It's Jeonghan hyung to you, young man" before pushing a hand pressing unto his back to bow to his classmates and asked louder: "sweethearts, he just came back from America and-" and couldn't finish since someone has decided to cut him once again

"Vernonie is from America as well English as well" Seungkwan jumped unto his feet hyped all of a sudden dragging the said boy along with him as if to show he was telling the truth.

"Seungkwan, it is impolite to speak when others are speaking" Jeonghan corrected the younger and concluded: "please take care of him and help him with Korean ok?"

The toddlers agreed with a unified "yes" and looked amazed to be able to have a new foreigner (not really, but Jeonghan let that slip because he was too tired already and it was only eight in the morning) joining them.

After half of day of lessons, Soonyoung has already befriended more than two third of the class, and seemed to get along especially well with Seokmin and Seungkwan as Jeonghan could almost see more headache coming now the trouble duo has added a third member, the kind of "Prepare for trouble, and make it triple".

He was supposed to loosen up his stressed mind once seeing his nephew blending well into his new surrounding and made so many friends, yet another unexpected problem came along.

Chan has been a lot more cheerful and talkative since their babysitting moments to his delight and Jeonghan has hinted more or less intentionally Soonyoung to play more with the younger. Yet, the two couldn't stand each other and one of the other would always find a way that ended whether with Chan crying "Soonyoung hyung is a meanie" in a corner or Sooyoung storming away yelling "Chan is a baby" and refused to speak to the other again.

The younger child has also become the targets of BooSoonSeok's (as the cool nickname they made for themselves) many pranks and jokes. No matter how many time Jeonghan has scold them or put them on timeout, they always seem to manage to sneak their tricks behind his back.

During one of their breaks between classes, when Chan's opened his arms and stared at him with his puppy eyes, Jeonghan hasn't thought twice before bending down and let a pair of tiny hands wrapped around the back of his neck until the string of the blue apron he was wearing was detached by another pair of small fingers.

In his back, Soonyoung stared at them with arms crossed in front of his chest and brows furrowed before saying:  
"Stop clinging unto Jeonghan hyung all the time!"

Chan pouted and for once bickered back, probably due to the adult's presence:  
"Jeonghan hyung is not yours!"

"He is not yours either" Soonyoung rised his voice now as well.

Before he could stop the two, the noise attracted the attention of the other children who all join in and seem has their little words to add as well.

Pinky was the first to yelled out: "Jeonghan hyung is mine! He said will marry me when I grow when we played house yesterday."

Alright, he definitely didn't expect his harmless promise would backfire this quickly.  
"No, he'll marry me!" argued back Minhyuk, one hand holding unto the corner of his shirt, the other hand holding his friend Jooheon.

"He is not yours! At least he is my uncle!" Soonyoung continued on to quarrel with Chan  
Chan's cheeks grew bright red, looking angry that his little brain couldn't find the best comeback but eventually yelled out "He is also my dad's boyfriend! They kissed!"

"Oh my" Jooyeon who was looking after the kids with him brought a hand to her mouth and chuckled with an amused grin: "Woo, that's an interesting revelation"  
Jeonghan's face was flushed bright red and felt light headed. Juggling between trying to quiet down the children and figuring out how in the world Chan found out on top of brainstorming as fast as possible to make up an excuse to his coworker.

Seeing how flustered the other was Jooyeon gave a pat on his back and clarified:

"Relax, there is no rule that forbids teachers to date parents" before blinking playfully "but I got to say Mr.Choi is quite a handsome one"

"It's not what you think!" the long haired male desperately tried to convince her, and repeated endlessly to the soon to know entire school staff because of her talkative nature (better known as her big mouth), yet nobody really believed him.

After that scene that drained all his energy the other day, Jeonghan gave up of trying to make the two friends and let them be as long as he made Soonyoung promise to tone down on his mocking attitude and stop initiating fights with the younger.

The days went on peacefully for a while without more scenes until one afternoon.

They were at the park two blocks away from the kindergarten to let the children breath some fresh air and Chan was playing by himself in the sand building castles and towers until a shadow obscured his view. When he raised his eyes in confusion, a taller and older kid he never saw before was staring at him and has snatched the pink plastic shovel the younger was holding unto without any words.

His lips were already trembling dangerously, yet he remembered that Jeongahan hyung told him to be strong and share with others and said with his small voice:

"We can play together, but you have to share"

"No!" The other kid shook his head and bend down starting to dig "I want to play by myself"

Chan stood up as well and tried to take it back as the other continuously shoved his hand away.

In the middle of their tugging war, another pair of small legs ran towards them and Soonyoung asked furrowing his brows to the taller child rising his chest defensively:

"What are you doing with my dongsaeng?"

"He took Channie's shovel" Chan replied pointing towards the pink object the other was holding. "And he don't share."

Soonyoung turned towards the elder opening his palm and ordered: "Give it back!"

Yet the other kid yelled a loud "No!" before pushing both of them down and kicked sand unto them preventing them from approaching any closer.

Chan broke into a loud cry as Soonyoung tried to cover both of their faces with his palms and yelling him to stop.

Fortunately, a teacher noticed their cry in no time and rushed in their direction.

The older kid quickly threw the toy back at Chan and ran away once he heard an adult approaching them.   
As soon as he was close enough, Jeonghan's gaze immediately landed on the puffy and blood shot eyes of Chan that the toddler was furiously scratching and the bawling almost broke his heart.   
He lift the younger in his arms and examined closely his eyes before asking:   
"Channie What happened?"  
Between sobs and hiccups, the younger replied:  
"Meanie kicked sand in my eyes"

After blowing into them for a few minutes, Jeonghan shifted his glance to the older kid sitting in the sandbox and scolded:  
"Kwon Soonyoung! How can you do that? You have gone too far this time! You could have hurt Chan's eyes!" with a furious expression replacing his usual calm and welcoming attitude.

 

The boy being criticized was on the edge of tears as well yet bite it back, trying to stay strong but said nothing and turned on his back.

As Jeonghan was to open to lecture his nephew again, Chan and said with a small voice

"It is not him, Soonyoung saved me and fight the bad guy."

This statement left the teacher perplexed for a moment and after some difficult explanation due to the small amount of vocabulary the younger had, the misunderstanding was clarified and Jeonghan felt the guilt ravaging him.

"I'm sorry Soonyoungie" apologized the blonde haired male to the still pouting kid back facing him and suggested:

"How about I make it up to you and make you fried chicken tonight, you can even pet Mr.Putter that you have missed so much?"

Many promises later, Soonyoung finally turned around and demanded:

"I want hamburger steak as well and two stories before bed!"

Jeonghan nodded and said:

"Alright, let me tell your mother and Chan's dad so we can go to my home after school."

As Jeonghan expected his nephew to complain at the mention of bring Chan with them, he walked towards the younger and said: "Sorry to call you a baby, you are not a baby, Let's be friend" before reaching his hand forward and as the younger shyly took it and added:  
"But you have to call me hyung ok?"   
and once the shorter boy nodded, a wide grin spread across his lips from cheek to cheek and soon the latter followed and before Jeonghan knew, both of the children break into laughter.

 

The blonde male couldn't stop himself from joining as well at how funny the scene was seeing both of them with their previously clean clothes now covered in sands with red puffy eyes laughing together yet the simplicity of happiness and purity on their little faces melted Jeonghan's heart into a puddle of goo reminding him the reason that he chose his profession.

After a quick text message to both of their parent (even though Wonwoo nagged him to call Seungcheol, but Jeonghan couldn't find the courage to hear the latter's voice, not when their situation is still unclear like that), the young teacher arrived home with two excitedly talking preschoolers on his heels.

Soonyoung was the first to rush inside and ran towards the white ball of fur peacefully bathing in the sun laying in the chair.   
Chan followed behind and both of them took turns to hug (read: squeeze) Mr.Putter in their arms.   
Jeonghan chuckled at the scene and his pet's desperate meowing. After checking one last time that his cat isn't suffocating, he turned inside the kitchen and started preparing the supper demanded by the two little princes who are staying over.

At first Jeonghan was slightly worried that the two toddlers might start arguing again in the course of the evening, yet they got along perfectly and his nephew even helped the younger child tie his apron during dinner and offered him the last piece of fried chicken in the plate (which shocked Jeonghan, since even his most beloved uncle didn't get that kind of treatment!)

As promised, once faces cleaned and tooth brushed, Jeonghan let each one choose a book from his large shelf. Soonyoung chose a story about knights and dragons and Chan has shyly pulled out the book that Jeonghan said was favorite and that the child never seems to grow tired of.

"Then he lay down close by and whispered with a smile, 'I love you right up to the moon- and back'. Jeonghan closed the book and asked both toddlers: "Did you like it?"

"Did you like it?"   
"Yes!" answered back Soonyoung raising his hand up as Chan eagerly nodded with a wide smile.   
Jeonghan chuckled at the sight and asked again:   
"Then who is someone that you love to the moon and back Soonyoungie?"   
"My mom and dad!" the older kid quickly replied happily without hesitation.  
"And Channie?"   
After a short moment of thinking, Chan answered:   
"Daddy..." yet added quietly with a sad voice  
"But daddy doesn't love Channie to the moon and back"   
Those words made Jeonghan's eyes grew round:  
"Why would you say he doesn't love you Channie?"   
"He always pick up Chan late and when he is home, he is always too tired to play with me" pouted the child crossing his arms.   
"Channie" softly explained Jeonghan "Your dad is so busy because his job needs him, but he does spend time with you whenever he gets a break right?"  
Chan thought for a few minutes before saying:   
"We went to the aquarium last time and saw a huge shark!" waving his hands around showing how big it was.  
Jeonghan continued:  
"And he also help protect everyone around us, him and his collegues work very hard to protect me, you, soonyoungie, all of your friends and everyone you love, he is so brave to fight bad guys, shouldn't you be proud of him?"  
Chan answered without hesitation this time:   
"Yes! Daddy is like a superhero and all the vilains are scared of him"  
"See, I am sure he misses you a great deal as well when he can't come home on time or pick up you late.   
I can promise there is no better feeling for a daddy or mommy to love and care for their child, and I am sure your daddy feel the same."  
Jeonghan grinned seeing the bright expression coming back the younger child who then asked curiously:  
"Would you like me if I was your child?"  
"Of course" giggled Jeonghan running his fingers through the younger's soft locks and added: "and Soonyoungie too"

 

The next morning, Lizzy was the first to arrive for Soonyoung. It wasn't until late in the afternoon when Chan was supposed to attend his swimming class that the doorbell rang again and Jeonghan felt his heart suddenly ran up to his throat.   
The one that been has disturbing his sleep for the past few weeks, wandering around in his dreams at night was there smiling politely at him, even that simple casual t-shirt looked incredibly good on him.  
"Hey"   
Jeonghan couldn't bring himself to speak, the words and the questions that has been burning in his tongue for weeks couldn't find its way out. Instead, he just foolishly stood there with his mouth hanging open.   
Chan also came to the door once he heard the doorbell and ran towards his father.   
Seungcheol carried the child up in this arms and quickly thanked him to which Jeonghan weakly nodded, barely visible.   
The pair was about to leave when Jeonghan's body proceeded to act before his mind could think all the way through.   
The blonde male startled stared down to his own fingers crawled into into the raven male's white t-shirt.   
The latter's gaze was asking him the reason of the sudden stop. The blond male opened and closed his mouth a few time yet no sound escape and he could sense his cheeks burning up as he cursed himself internally why was he making a fool of himself until an idea flashed in his mind before trying to contain himself from stuttering: "I-I forgot a coat at your place, in Chan's room, I'd like to go get it back, if it is alright with you."  
The elder crook an brow at his explanation yet nonetheless accepted.   
Once assured Chan safely entered the pool, the ride back was silent, even with his favorite singer's song playing through the speaker, the tension was so noticeable that Jeonghan felt like suffocating.   
The quietness lasted until the familiar house that he has visited in weeks entered his view.   
Seungcheol gallantly opened the passenger seat for him and Jeonghan gulped before walking out.   
Once inside, the elder male's eyes scanned around Chan's room and shuffled through the cushions asking:  
"Do remember where you left-" when he nearly jumped as a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around his waist from the back.  
Seungcheol felt the younger burring his face unto his back, voice muffled by the material of his shirt:  
"Can we talk?"  
The raven male let out a quiet sigh but then replied:  
"Of course." entangling the younger's arms and guiding him somewhere outside of the room.

Head low, Jeonghan felt his face heating up and the embarrassment slowly come back to him, yet he couldn't chicken out right now.

Once arrived at the balcony with the view on the small garden in the back of the house, the raven opened the window screen and gestured the younger towards on one of the two chaises longues, before coming back after a while with two glasses of golden brown liquid.

"I hope you don't mind rum, there isn't many options in the drink cabinet of a single father." apologized Seungcheol taking a seat on the other chair.

He said nothing more after this, only to stare quietly at the late evening sky fading into a mauve-orange shade, some of the stars has appeared already, as the clouds calmly floated by.

Jeonghan knew the latter was waiting for him to begin, but all thoughts and emotions were tangled into a mess with the latter's alluring and soothing cologne still lingered in his memory racing his heart rate even more. He tried to avoid his gaze to land on those slightly parted lips, reminding him the euphoria of those pressed against his own. The blonde male took a few deep breaths before starting:

"I have thought a lot, for the past few weeks, about that night..." and hurried on as he saw the latter open his mouth:

"I know you have said you don't want to discuss about it anymore, but I really just can't pretend it didn't happen."

Seungcheol looked down and took a large gulp of his drink, and Jeonghan chewed on the inside of his cheeks before asking:

"Why did you do it?" his fingers inconsciently brushing over his lips.

The raven male sighed again and said defeated robbing his temples:

"To be honest, I don't quite know why, whether it is because I was too tired or you looked just too good to be real, all that said, all that matters is: I didn't mean it to happen, and again, I want to apologize for it, I shouldn't have done it-"

"But you did! You did kiss me!" Jeonghan abruptly cut in, finally spitting the word that suddenly has became taboo between them and shook his head "I don't want your apologies... have you thought that, maybe, maybe I didn't hate the kiss, Seungcheol?"

The elder male eyed him a knowing look that pleaded him to swallow his next words,

but the adrenaline got the best of him and before he knew, those words that has rolled around the tip of his tongue since forever escaped:

"Have you thought that maybe I love you?"

The night has fallen and the darkness has casted a deep shadow unto their figures yet neither of them bothered to turn on the light, or even noticed, too immersed into their own world where there seems to be sorely the two of them,

Seungcheol reached forward grabbing the younger's hand and stroke it as he said, eyes luring in the starlight:

"You are still young, very young compare to me, you still have lots of time to look around for nice men or women around your age that share your passions and your interests. There is still so much in this world for you to see, at your age, you will crave thrill, adventure, stuff that gives you adrenaline rushes, and all those that I can't give you. Jeonghan, I am already thirty, and I have a son. Do you seriously think we could work it out?"

"But ten years in not that much" Jeonghan defended "And in love, ages don't matter"

Seungcheol cracked a chuckle at that reply "Just saying that proves my point, how young and naive you are"

"But you like me too, don't you, the young and naive me? Otherwise why would you have kissed me?" Jeonghan replied voice hinted with hope.

The elder male shook his head with an uneasy grin, maybe even a little sad "How confident of you, I admit have been intrigued by you, but I don't date people, men or women, younger than me." and added firmly "There is no exception."

"Then I'll be that exception" Jeonghan concluded eyes shimmering in determination "I am not giving up like this, if I have to chase after you than I would."

The blonde male than stood up and quickly bowed to him before disappearing behind the door.

Seungcheol sat there in the dark, once he heard the front door shut, his gaze trailed on the glass of liquor left untouched, the ice hasn't still fully melted.

From that time on,

Seungcheol has started to contact him again for occasional babysitting and greeted him like usual when he came to drop or pick up Chan.

Their relationship was balancing on a thin line of equilibrium, that nobody dared to cross.

Even though he made some pretty strong-willed declaration on the balcony, Jeonghan has been too flustered and lost to actually do anything.

Truth be said, he has never really had to make the first move on anyone before (to which Wonwoo muttered under his breath that he's lowkey bragging about his looks), and to be honest, his romantic knowledge is pretty much limited to those badly scripted dramas that he watched with Jeonghwa and his mother.

The worst is the fact that he doesn't have anyone that he could rely on.

He could ask Wonwoo who has been especially keen to mock him whenever he can of how cheesy that 'I'll be the exception' sounded, but he knew the younger probably wasn't much of of a charmer either considering how awkward he behave around that hot high school teacher, Minhu or something. Lizzy and Jeonghwa weren't also the best candidates since if they ever knew, then probably his whole family would know it as well the next day. His older cousin Minki might have looked like a tempting option in the beginning, but knowing how protective he can get, the elder would probably fly back from Paris and hire private detective to stalk on his crush.

On top of that, he needed to learn more about Seungcheol, about his likes and dislikes, about what he did in his freetime, and there is only so much he can get out from Chan before it gets suspicious.

Jeonghan ruffled his hair and let out a groan of frustration, as he bangs his head on the table where Chan left his unfinished drawings.

When suddenly someone appeared in his head, that person would definitely know Seungcheol well, probably knows everything about him but would he have the courage to even ask him? Would he even want to help him?

The sudden doorbell disrupted his thoughts, and as the door opened, Jeonghan truly wondered if God can actually hear his prayers.

Jihoon walked in and frowned at the latter dumbly hanging his mouth open, before resting a grocery bag unto the kitchen table and explained nonchalantly: "Seungcheol told me to drop those by, he said the fridge is empty and you have no car to go to the supermarket, I didn't want Chan to starve to death since apparently you told him deliveries are bad for children's growth." before his eyes wandered around for the small child to which Jeonghan quickly clarified:

"Chan is taking a nap right now."

The short male nodded and directed his feet towards the door but Jeonghan quickly stopped him in the way with pleading eyes.

"Can I ask you something?"

He took the silence as a green light and grabbed a notepad out of his apron before listing:

"Can you tell me what Seungcheol like to do in his freetime, like any pastimes? Also what kind of movies does he like? What kind of desserts does he like? And what kind-"

"Why do you think I would tell you?" Jihoon cut him coldly, with an expressionless face.

A blush creped unto Jeonghan's cheeks as he lowered his head with a small voice:

"I thought you might be nice enough to tell me."

"I don't like you" stated the shorter male bluntly "Seungcheol doesn't need his heart to be hurt twice like that."

"I won't do that" frowned the blonde male and précised "I won't hurt him"

Jihoon replied with a mocking scoff: "You can say that now, and why are you interested in him anyway? it is because he is rich, isn't it?"

"Why do you have to believe the worst in people? And I don't want his money at all!" Jeonghan defended, suddenly frustrated as well "You don't even know me"

"I have heard enough about you and how Seungcheol feel about you to know you are very potential to become another him."

"Who's him?" the blonde male was dumbfounded by such a sudden mention.

"You really know anything do you?" Jihoon shook his head in defeat and bite his lips a few times as if he was debating whether to tell or not, before he sat down on the tall kitchen chair and sighed: "Might as well tell you right now, so you can give up faster and leave his life back to normal."

Jeonghan imitated the latter taking a seat and waited patiently for him to begin:

"Two years ago, Seungcheol met a boy around your age who was still in college. His name was Dooyoung. I have never seen Seungcheol love someone so much before and they were the epitome of happy couple envied by everyone. Dooyoung seemed so lovely and kind as well and even got along well with Chan who was can be quite difficult sometime since he was a shy child that rarely opened up to others. Seungcheol was about to propose to him when he ran into Dooyoung with another man, in his house doing all things imaginable. It almost destroyed him, but he had to get himself together because he still has Chan to take care of."

Jeonghan felt his heart dropped even further with the next sentence,

"When Seungcheol questioned him why Dooyong did all this, you know what he said? Because he quickly got bored of his routine and monotonous way of living but didn't want to let go such an easily accessible open bank account."

"Does it sound familiar? What makes you think you won't become a second Dooyoung?" asked Jihoon, staring him intensely in the eyes.

Yet to his slight surprise, Jeonghan though shaken by his story, still fiercely alleged staring back with the intensity:

"Because I am not Dooyoung and I am truly fond of him and Chan, not because of money or power, but for who they are, and that I believe Seungcheol deserves to be happier than anyone else."

The blonde male then pouted:

"At least give me a chance, I'll prove you wrong, prove to you that I'll love him more than he loves me"

Jihoon frowned yet said nothing, instead he turned on his heels towards the exit again

and just as Jeonghan was about to wave him goodbye, the latter mumbled:

"Cherry pie"

"What?"

"It's his favorite dessert "

Chan proudly presented his father a colorful poster in front of his face as soon as he came back.

"What is that for?" curiously asked Seungcheol starting to read the piece of paper.

"It is the upcoming school festival!" answered excitedly Chan as his eyes stared at Jeonghan coming out of the kitchen with a batch of freshly baked cookies.

"Ohhhh, what are you going to do then?" The father grabbed Chan and threw him in the air playing airplane making the child giggle in the process.

"Soonyoung and him have prepared a dance number," replied Jeonghan setting the plate down and handing a cookie towards the small kid still in his father's arms.

Indeed, Soonyoung and Chan's friendship has grown incredibly and the older kid has started to teach the younger dances he learnt in America before. Together with Jun and Minghao, they even formed a dance little crew. Chan has also developed an obsession that neither Jeonghan and Seungcheol would have saw it coming.

"Soonyoung hyung said I can do Michael Jackson in my number!" announced happily Chan towards his dad. In fact, Jeonghan was pretty sure that 'Michael Jackson' has became almost became the third most said word after 'daddy' and 'Jeonghan hyung' in that toddler's vocabulary.

After showing them the moves he has prepared, Chan turned towards Jeonghan once his stomach growled and asked: "Jeonghan hyung, what are we eating?"

"We are having Kimchi Chigae!" smiled back the blonde male, as his peripheral view lands a slight surprised yet pleased look from Mr.raven haired's face.

Thanks to Jihoon who reluctantly gave him a few hints about Seungcheol's preference for all kinds of things, Jeonghan has so far been successfully at least to stay true to his words in term of chasing after Seungcheol ( or more like his stomach).Jeonghan has never felt a greater accomplishment than seeing Chan and Seungcheol's eyes light up and devour all the food he prepares for them. It was silly, but each time Seungcheol praised his cooking or smiled gratefully towards him, Jeonghan felt he was a little closer to wining his heart. As long as he continues to work hard, he will eventually get Seungcheol to love him back, right?

The school festival happened on a gorgeous summer day. The sun was shining brightly, and a small breeze that gave a small touch of freshness well needed towards the hard working teachers preparing since the early morning. Jeonghan placed the last piece of the scene into place before wiping the back of his hand his sweating forehead. Jooyeon threw him a can of cooled soda before whining and stretching her tired limbs: "Finally done. Who'd thought it'd be so tiring to organize a show just for toddlers? Thank god I am not teaching at a higher level"

Jungah approached them and offered:

"By the way, Raina wanted to let you guys know they are making pastries for the small cafe she organized in her classroom, so don't forget to go grab some at the end of your shift."

"What kind of pastries?" Wonwoo who has never had a sweet tooth feigned interest resting his head on Jeonghan's shoulder.

"She said stuffs like chocolate cupcake, cookies, muffins..." Jungah listed on "and cherry pie I believe"

Jeonghan's eyes automatically shift towards her because despite his amazing cooking skills, he never knew how to make a pie.

His mind wandered towards it wondering if he could ask Raina after this to teach him someday.

The parents filled the seats in front of the open stage set up for the day, there was so many people that the kids themselves had a hard time finding their parents with their eyes from the backstage, but Jeonghan's eyes were glued on the well built figure in a form fitting suit from the moment he stepped in.

Yet he didn't have time to admire the perfection created by God before he got called back to prepare for the starting.

Seungkwan has proclaimed himself to be the MC of the show along with Seokmin, because they kept on arguing over it ever since the notice was out and trying to show Jeonghan their talent, transforming most of his classes as funny talk shows (as Jeonghan didn't find them not so funny anymore at the end) so he had to make them co-MCs to solve the issue.

Most of the classes chose to perform one number, but since his class was all full of talented (read: hyperactive) kids, Jeonghan had to be in charge of three numbers.

Once Pinky, Nayoung and some other classmates finished their play of snow white, it was the turn of Chan who was slightly nervous but Jeonghan did his best to reassure him he'll do great.

And indeed the small dance unit finished their performance with a loud around of applause and Jeonghan couldn't help but grin and be proud that Chan overcame his shyness and was excitedly waving at his father.

At the end, their class finished their show with a choir of twinkle twinkle little star in which Seungkwan and Seokmin had each a solo part (since Jeonghan learnt the hard way that if you give one something, you better get the other one as well) and Jooheon and Hansol (or Vernon as he called himself because it's "cool") added a rap part to which Jeonghan didn't had a heart to refuse. Fortunately, his worries vanished hearing the positive response from the audience.

Once the show ended, Jeonghan directed towards well the parents sat moments before and after being greeted by numerous parents of children of his class thanking him for his good work, he finally reached the one he was searching for in particular, and asked shyly:

"How was it?"

"It was very entertaining" smiled sincerely Seungcheol "Congratulation for such a great show. You did a wonderful job."

Though he received many compliments, this was the one that made his heart fluttered the most. 

Jeonghan tried to calm down by changing the subject :

"Are you going to stay or you have to go back to work?"

"I got a full day break, Chan told me he wanted to show me the school and play a few games that they set up, so I'd be probably following him around"

"Do you want to have dinner together?" asked nervously Jeonghan playing with the corner of his shirt "There is still some pork that I left in your fridge and I was thinking we could have samgyeopsal..."

"Sure" answered warmly Seungcheol "I'd be around, text me when you are done and we can go home together."

The mention of "home" made Jeonghan warm inside, and brightened up his day. He quickly waved at the elder before rushing towards Jooyeon that just called him.

Seungcheol's gaze lingered behind Jeonghan's figure slowly disappearing in his field of view, when suddenly a familiar female voice called him:

"Seungcheol?"

Jeonghan was happily humming as he handed out to plastic plates parents at the end of the cafe's line.

His colleagues all noticed his sudden change of behavior, and Jooyeon was the first to tease him,

"What made our Jeonghanie of such a good mood all of a sudden?"

"Don't ask such an obvious question," smirked Raina "It has to be a certain Mr.Choi isn't it?"

"Nop" Jeonghan tried to fake a serious expression, but his wide grin gave it away

"Ohhh, then who are you keeping that for?" asked Jungah wiggling her brows slyly point towards the best piece of cherry pie he especially asked Raina to keep aside for him.

"Myself" shrugged Jeonghan flashing them a even brighter smile.

At the third call with still no response, Jeonghan finally hang out up and set his phone down. The festival has reached its end and he has been trying to contact Seungcheol for a good half an hour now. After begging Jooyeon to fill in for the rest of his shift, Jeonghan decided to look for the raven haired male himself grabbing the piece of pie he packed previously.

He searched around the main events and classrooms for a while with no success, and went on to check the gym as well knowing Chan met wanted to his father this corner of the kindergarten,

As he took the short cut by passing from the small well hidden garden on the back of the school,

someone caught his attention.

It was a couple, more precisely, a man and a woman. The man was back facing him and from their proximity the woman's fluttering eyelashes with her eyes shut,

he could tell they were kissing.

And no matter how much he wanted to hypnotize himself that the man in front of his eyes is a stranger,

his heart knew better it was none other than Seungcheol wrapping his arms around the woman.

The paper bag he was holding slide from his fingers into the cold ground,

Jeonghan's lips curved into a self mocking smile,

Maybe he was too confident,

Maybe Seungcheol really doesn't love him, not at all.


	4. A lot

The sun was already high up in the sky, softly warming the clean white sheets with its golden rays, a body shifted under it and soon some strands of blonde hair peaked out, as the owner of the hair raised his tired eyes to the clock hanging above the kitchen table. it was already half past noon. Slowly groaning at the aching of his head, it has been a while that he has drink so many mixture of alcohol at once. As he slowly blinks trying it as a faint attempt to wake up back to reality, his mind wandered back to the wild partying of last night along side his younger sister's college friends who insisted for him to join them not wanting him to pass New Year Eve alone inside her apartment.

As soon as they got to the club, the long haired male was forcefully greeted to tug down a shot glass full of a clear liquid that was probably vodka along side some other hard drinks and by eleven-o-clocks. After God knows how many round of shoots of whatever was given to him, he was swinging around feeling loose and laughing with strangers that he hasn't done so in a long time. One of Jeonghwa's friend dragged him to the dance floor and Jeonghan felt he was having the best time in his past few months, for once drunk enough to stop worrying about anything and let his limbs flow with the blastering music. A pair of hands suddenly rested on his hips from behind. Jeonghan looked over his shoulder to found them belonging to a man probably a little younger than him and quite good looking, at least to his now blurry vision and foggy mind. The foreign man stared at him with obvious intention shining in his eyes and once realized the blonde beauty in front of him not only didn't pull way, but scooted closer, he eagerly joined their lips together as the other shamelessly reciprocated back in the middle of the dance floor.

An odd sense of satisfaction of knowing others still found him attractive and not having to behave properly for once like his job obliged him to rushed down Jeonghan's spine before a bitter taste rushed up to his mouth. Jeonghan quickly pushed the man still grinding on him away despite the other's loud protest of English words that he couldn't understand with an unhiddeable disgusted feeling as he sprinted towards the bathroom to empty the content of his stomach.

After the school festival ended, once he got home, the first thing Jeonghan did after filling the bowl of Mr.Putter was to open his laptop and book the first flight to London the next day. winter break has came around giving him a reason to escape away from that suffocating pain in his chest.

Jeonghan purposely shut his phone and left it behind at home before walking out to catch a cab to the airport with Mr.Putter still asleep in his cage.

This younger sister hasn't said anything, or even asked about the saddened expression dotting his face when he arrived, simply welcoming his surprise appearance at her door step with a large grin and open arms.

It has been almost five days since he has arrived to this city almost covered entirely of grey unlike the clear blue sky that Seoul has to offer, yet it felt like he could finally breath freely.

Jeonghan raised up from the sofa he spent the night at and walked over the kitchen table on which Jeonghwa has left a note saying she had to run a few errands and has left him breakfast next to half a sandwich already cold.

The blonde male grinned at the scrambled on that piece of paper before turning on heels to clean himself up.

He had to be back to work in three days. Is he ready to go back to the city with Chan and the man that has been haunting in his dreams for days? Jeonghan really couldn't really tell, but one thing for sure, running away from problem was never going to solve anything, that's what he has taught Jeonghwa since their young age as well.

Minhyun has came to drive him back home from the airport, and once he got home, Jeonghan left his luggage at the door step and quickly changed into clean clothes before falling asleep again.

After handing out souvenirs left and right and wishing a happy new year to everyone around the office, Jeonghan directed his feet towards his classroom, his heart finally at peace from the persisting rollercoaster since he has met Seungcheol. He has made his mind to say goodbye, to bid Farwell to a non-existant future of being more than just acquaintances.

As he set up the classroom and re-read through the materials he prepared for today, footsteps running down the corridor could be heard and soon the door opened to reveal a pair of small legs rushing towards him with his desk.

"Jeonghan hyung where did you go? Dad called you and you didn't answer!" asked Chan with an upset expression shooting "I was scared a bad guy kidnap you!"

"Good Morning Channie" greeted Jeonghan softly "I am sorry to make you worried, I have gone to spend Christmas with my sister and I forgot my phone back home." And quickly changed the subject

"I even brought each of you a gift from London!" Chan's attention as the rest of the students arriving have been successfully attracted towards the presents from such a far away country.

At the end of the day with all the students leaving one by one,

Jeonghan could distinguish a familiar tall figure approaching from a distance, yet this time, the flustering in his voice and acceleration of his heart were all gone.

"Why didn't you answer my calls?" frowned the raven haired male and scolded "I was so worried that something might have happened to you"

"Mr.Choi", replied calmly the younger with his usual smile yet so distant and not reaching his eyes "I forgot my phone back at Seoul when I went to celebrate the holidays with my younger sister in the UK, I apologize for your worries, but I'm an adult fully capable of taking care of myself."

Seungcheol could only let out a quiet Oh before the silence came back between them.

"Did you have a nice trip?" asked nervously the other.

Jeonghan nodded before saying, still in his polite yet estranged attitude: "Please be careful on your way home." and turned on his heels to go bid goodbye to the next student.

Seungcheol remained speechless and stood there for a few minutes before reluctantly walking away with Chan in his arms.

Days went on like this without further complication, Jeonghan would politely refusing to babysit Chan when Seungcheol called him from time to time using the pretext that he was busy applying for grad school. The police sheriff groaned under his breath at the nth text message from the long haired male saying he won't be available to make make it to Chan's birthday and wished them to have good time. Seungcheol raised up from his seat and now Though He didn't want to admit, Jeonghan indeed triggered a part of him that he never knew exist and Seungcheol like none of the people he dated before could.

"We couldn't find much in common between the children, they went to different schools, had different friends and lived at different parts of the city" commented Chankyun back with a report in hand "So I got Bekah to look up if their parents were connected anyhow."

Nana suddenly broke through Bekah's office and pulled her boss to the side asking with a low voice:  
"Seungcheol, do you happen to remember a guy named Lee Dongshin?"  
That name prompted a foggy place in the back of his head but couldn't fully make up the face, so he shook his head and waited for further explanation.   
Nana opened the folder she was holding showing the picture of a middle-aged man with a deep scar on his left cheek and morbid blood-shot eyes:  
"He's someone that you arrested with your previous team in that massive traffic of Marijuana back in 2011."  
Now the memory came back to him, that man was the culprit of one of the cases he worked on when he first became an officer.   
"Bekah looked through his background and found he has a son that was around 15 when he went to jail, and has committed suicide a year after his dad got caught. According to the records, he has been bullied at lot back in school and one of the boys bullying him has suspended because of this scandal also happens to be the first victim we found. Lee Dongshin also recently finished his sentence and the first murder happened a few weeks after his release."   
"The second body was of the youngest daughter of the principal of that high school and many small medias has suspected him of accepting bribe to tolerate the bullying behavior within his ground. I could go on and on, but you get the idea, all of them were somehow related to that case."  
"You believe he is doing all this out of revenge?" asked Baekho with an aggravated tone in his voice to which Nana responded with a nod.   
Raina who has been listening to the whole conversation and busy looking at her screen, then turned around and said:  
"I have found his most recent address and all his general information which have been sent to all of your phones."  
Nana gave her colleague a thumb up before quickly dialing a few numbers on her phone and they watched her face darken once she hang up her phone:   
"His neighbor said that she saw him leaving this morning with his car."  
"Can you go look up the plate and the model of the car registered under his name?" urged Seungcheol towards Raina whose fingers were rapidly knocking on her keyboard.  
"Found it and sent!"   
"I'll send a call to all the officers patrolling right now to see and let them know the fugitive we are looking for" announced Nana.  
"Chankyun and I are going to the apartment of the suspect" Seungcheol declared grabbing his coat and ordered "Baekho hyung and Raina stay back here and wait for more directives once we get more information."  
After a fifteen minutes ride, they got the apartment block the suspect was supposedly living at. Following the procedure of knocking and warning, Seungcheol and Chankyun broke inside kicking down the door. A strong smell of moisture and dirt greeted them. As they passed through the kitchen Chankyun grimaced at the sink with piles of dirty dishes and joked: "That's even worse than Baekho hyung's home"  
When they reached the most far room in the dimly lit corridor, both of them shivered a little simultaneously seeing upon the amount of weapon laying around ranging from automatic rifles to sharp hunting knifes. Seungcheol scanned through the objects laying around the room as Chankyun mumbled that they finally caught a big fish this time. He stumbled on a piece of paper messily pinned on a board. It was a list with various names on it to which he recognizes all of them except one starting from the top to be each victim and all of them crossed out by a red pen"   
As Seungcheol frowned at last name, his ringtone broke through the silence and after putting it on speaker, asked: "What's wrong?"   
"They found another body" said Baekho on the other side  
"Is it the one of a boy in the name of Wonhyuk?"   
"How did you know?" asked Baekho startled in the other end of the line.  
Seungcheol didn't reply and simply brushed it of that he'll call him back later.   
Seungcheol ruffled through the documents spread around on the desk and then he's blood turned cold, another piece of paper with the same hand writing with the same color of pen was revealed and the next on the list was...

A high pitched screaming pierced through the loud laughing children running around the courtyard. Everyone stopped at the moment slightly confused.  
Once he distinguished a man wrapping his arm forcefully around one of the female teacher and finally realized what is happening, Jeonghan out of reflex pulled all the scared children around him, so of which started crying in his arm reach closer and quickly rushed them inside the building through the closest entrance and pressed his back against the door. Among the sobbing and screaming children, the man waved fired his gun once in the air yelling:   
"No one moves!"

All the adults did as told and stayed on their place trying to calm the young students as much as possible.  
"Lead me to that kid named Choi Chan" demanded the outlawed towards the teacher he hold hostage of.   
"W-We don't have a child with that name here" replied the woman uncontrollably shaken on the edge of tear.

"Don't lie to me or I swear I'll shoot you" roared the criminal tightening his grip around her.

"Please, please don't" begged the woman desperately.

A siren echoed through the scene and within a minute, two police car flied to the scene as four officers jumped out of the cars instantly loading and pointing their guns out.

"Drop your weapon and put your hands behind your head immediately" commanded Baekho, two hands supporting his pistol.

"The least I am scared right now is death" laughed out the man madly "Bring me that child or I'll shoot all of them!"

"Let go of them" shouted Seungcheol hurdling over the fence, resting his gun slowly down on the ground approaching the fugitive raising his hands "You can take me hostage instead."

"No, I want all of you to feel that pain" The man spitted venomously "The pain of losing your beloved and innocent kid"

The situation aggravates and Jeonghan was debating what could he do to help Seungcheol a little, Chan who was hidden in a corner behind the back Wonwoo cried out seeing his father "Daddy!" and soon the fugitive let go of the woman and directed his feet towards that small body as he lowered the gun, his finger on the trigger. Jeonghan's body reacted faster than his mind and all he remembered was jumping on top of a crying Chan followed by thundering shooting sounds, and then all went blank.

Jeonghan opened his eyes filled with white and after a few minutes could make it to be the ceiling as the smell of disinfectant start stinging his nostrils.

He tried to move around when a sharp pain stabbed on his ribs making him release a loud hiss. A few footsteps approached his bed upon the noise and an unfamiliar female voice said: "Oh God, he finally woke up! I'll go find the doctor!" before distancing away.

Jeonghan then felt a weight settled down next to him over his drap and someone who he could recognize instantaneously despite his dizzy mind sitting down next to him, his voice raspier than usual grabbing his hand "How are you feeling right now?"

"It hurts" painful articulated out Jeonghan still hissing and upon those words, a faint attempt to sooth his pain, even if just a little.

"I can't lose you" The blonde male didn't know whether it was the effect of the anesthesia, but the unforgettable sobbing tone inside that phrase would mark him for a long long time to come.

In the following days, Jeonghan was recovering quite fast, even the doctor said he was incredibly lucky that the bullet didn't damage any of the main organs but they wanted to make sure he was perfectly fine before letting him go.

Minhyun and Minki came to visit him as well and felt a heavy weight drop from their heart once they saw the younger in better shape.

Seungcheol came to visit him everyday during that week and Chan who often was brought along to cheer him up with the daily stories that happened in the kindergarten never failed to put a smile on his face. Jeonghan didn't want to question the motive of his frequent appearance, after all, passing through the gate between life and death once had been an eye to simply let life flow wherever it takes him to.

"You don't have to come so often if you are busy you know?" finally remarked Jeonghan at the raven haired male clumsily removing the peel of on apple.

"The department granted me a break anyway after the case was closed" said Seungcheol resting a plate of not the best looking pieces of fruit on the latter's lap if the younger were to be honest.

"You know what I mean." sighed Jeonghan pinching the bridge of his nose, it is great to have some company in such a boring hospital, but this presence also burdened him somehow unsure whether the other is doing it out of guilt or something he didn't want to think of.

Seungcheol remained quiet a few moments, before standing up and sitting down on the side of his bed and raised his hand as if he were to grab the younger's hand, yet settled instead for a corner of his shirt as if he let go, the latter would fly away.

He stayed there and took a deep breath before starting with a voice full of sincerity:

"I should have admitted to you and to myself sooner that you meant a lot to me. Ever since the first time I met you, I just knew there was something different, something special about you that I couldn't take my eyes off, and the more I learn about you, I thought to myself how can someone be so perfect, so kind and so loving and yet I couldn't bring myself to say it to you. I have been a coward that was afraid to be hurt again, but then I realize how unfair is it to you, for me to assume you would eventually left me like everyone before. Still, I have to say it"

Seungcheol confessed with sweetness spilling out of his words finally gathering the courage to reach for his hand: "I have fallen for you Jeonghan, I love you"

"What about Mrs.Lee, Junie's mother, I believe?" questioned Jeonghan eyes still focused on his book, leaving the apple untouched.

"What about her?" asked back Seungcheol, genuinely confused

"I saw you kiss her" replied forwardly Jeonghan finally looking up straight into the other's eyes and shrugged "Didn't mean to spy on you, but that wasn't very discreet of you either."

"I can explain, we used to date back in college" said Seungcheol "and when I met her again in the school festival, she told me that she just recently divorced and needed some comfort, and before I knew, she kissed me" and added wholeheartedly "I swear I didn't intend it to happen "

"It doesn't matter; I don't love you anymore." Jeonghan shook his head and said monotonously pulling his hand away

"Then it's my turn to make you fall in love with me again." grinned Seungcheol.

The days passed on and Seungcheol and Chan would make them more and more prominent part of Jeonghan's life.

One evening, as Jeonghan opened the door to his apartment,

the light flicked up before he touched the switch making him jumped a little in surprise.

And soon a cheerful "Happy birthday!" yelled out two voices with a small strawberry vanilla cake and lit candles on top, the glow casting a warm shadow on both of their adorable faces.

Jeonghan grinned at that scene and rushed towards them before joining his hands together and closing his eyes as the two sang Happy Birthday in the background.

As they all sat down at the dinner table, Seungcheol called "Channie" who is currently being fed a piece of the strawberry by the owner of the house and gestured something as the child pulled something from his backpack and handed to Jeonghan with a proud grin.

The blonde male rested his fork down and accepted a gift wrapped with a light blue ribbon.

Jeonghan uncovered a small wooden box from it painted on top with three people, two adults and one child, all with a wide smile on their faces and hands hold together.

A smile matching the drawing grew on his face, yet it was soon replaced by surprise once he opens to find a shining silver key and a loud

"Will you join our family?" asked by the two people, one tall and one small, leaving a new mark on his path of life.


End file.
